Now ambulance crews get 'dirty bomb' alarms

Now ambulance crews get 'dirty bomb' alarms

www.dailymail.co.uk

Britain's ambulance crews have been issued with personal radiation monitors in response to the growing threat of 'dirty bomb' attacks by terrorists.

The pager-size devices, which sound an alarm if they detect radiation, have been supplied by the Department of Health to all of the UK's ambulance trusts, at a cost of £2.5million.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Preparation for the inevitable?

Why not street lights in high population areas?
Detection is swell and all, but prevention is better.
Not a bad idea though.

Questions or comments?

www.dailymail.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

An ounce of prevention ... acreate. (?)

... is worth [what]?

- a pound

- a shilling

- a right

- etc ...

? thoughts ?


 

12m8keall2c, please, its spelled aecreate.

It's late, and I'm not sure what you're getting at,
maybe you should spell it out for me

Is this being done in the US?
Shouldn't this be done over here?

They've found traces of Polonium 210 "all over the place", after the assassination of Litvinenko. I can see from your article that about 150 ambulance workers have used these radioactivity detectors for nine months already. As Polonium 210 (which killed Litvinenko) are used as triggers for suitcase nukes, I'm not surprised about this step. However, the question is if they're really worried about dirty bombs. Or if they might be worried about suitcase nukes instead...

Ah, that makes sense, thank you Hellmutt.

Originally posted by Hellmutt
However, the question is if they're really worried about dirty bombs. Or if they might be worried about suitcase nukes instead...

Out of curiousity, which do you think?

Originally posted by aecreate

Out of curiousity, which do you think?

Here's what I think:


If there are suitcase nukes in the UK (and Germany?), someone might have armed them now with Polonium. And due to the short halflife of Polonium, unless they're planning to use them soon, they'd need to rearm them with Polonium again before they can be used. According to the late Alexander Lebed, there might be 100 or more suitcase nukes missing from the former USSR. They can be bought on the black market, and I believe they were tested in North Korea. Al Qaeda might have some of them too.


Wikipedia: Alexander Lebed

On September 7, 1997, a story broke in which Lebed alleged during an interview with the TV newsmagazine Sixty Minutes that a hundred of Soviet-made suitcase-sized nuclear weapons designed for sabotage "are not under the control of the armed forces of Russia".

***

Take a look at this post from the thread Putin does it again!!! (poisoned spy)

and the thread The World's Most Accessible Nuclear Facility

hmmm interesting....

What would UK or USA do if a dirty bomb or a nuke went off, i doubt we would full scale nukes in retaliation, would we use bio or chemical weps against them and even maybe mini nukes? we would need to use something that wouldnt leave loads of radiation fallout or a large scale fallout area and a short life span, what were those weapons we had back in cold war days in Europe to help stop an advance of Russia into Europe, they were nukes but had a 24hr radiation life span so after use against Russian troops and tanks an stuff we could cross over 24hrs later in relative safety, dont we have weapons that can destroy bio matter only and leave buildings standing??

Maybe they're honestly just trying to protect workers since it just gets easier to access nuclear weaponry for "terrorists" everyday?

However Cheney's recent comments on a feared nuke in a US city makes me think otherwise...I relate this to the UK because of the 7/7 attacks.

Po-210 has only one real use, and that is to be used as triggers in portable nuclear devices (suitcase nukes). It's useless for dirty bombs as it's way too expensive and hard to get, and it doesn't create the "desired effect" of a dirty bomb. Other, cheaper and easier-to-get materials would certainly be used instead. If they're worried about a dirty bomb, then it's not because of Po-210. The blast in north korea ("nuclear test") was reported by South Korean sources as 550k. If that was a suitcase, then I guess this might be the approximate effect of such device. Unless they're different size. But the Po-210 decay so quickly, with half-life of only 138 days. After 138 days, the amount of Polonium will be half of what it was...
Retaliate? What if Al Qaeda set off one of these in UK or Germany (or elsewhere)? Who would nuke who afterwards?

Originally posted by Hellmutt
Po-210 has only one real use, and that is to be used as triggers in portable nuclear devices (suitcase nukes). It's useless for dirty bombs as it's way too expensive and hard to get, and it doesn't create the "desired effect" of a dirty bomb. Other, cheaper and easier-to-get materials would certainly be used instead.

What then was the real message of killing Litvenenko with Polonium, a trigger for suitcase nukes? Polonium is about the last thing you'd think of if you just wanted to get rid of him, so this was a very public warning.

To me it looks like it was a blunt warning from Putin that these loose Russian nukes are in play and that Polonium is being avidly sought by various dark players to be able to use them. And apparently Litvenenko was one of the guys on the hunt, and got more of it than he bargained for. A dark joke in one sense, but deadly serious.

He was murdered in London, no accident. So obviously the Brits took heed of Putin's message.

Maybe they should just put the radiation detectors in the street cameras? That would cover the most threatened areas.

Just FYI... emergency crews in New York City have been carrying these things for quite some time now. They're virtually indistinguishable from a regular old fashioned beeper...

I don't see it as a bad thing for every major city to have some of these circulating. Would it work stationary, like on a camera as mentioned above? Sure...

But keep in mind, emergency responders are the ones going to the incidents. They're the ones reporting to primary incidents that are sometimes followed by secondary incidents as well. Having them on the scene already will shorten the delay between incident and response tremendously. A street lamp is great if the incident happens to occur right there...

Originally posted by Djarums
But keep in mind, emergency responders are the ones going to the incidents. They're the ones reporting to primary incidents that are sometimes followed by secondary incidents as well. Having them on the scene already will shorten the delay between incident and response tremendously. A street lamp is great if the incident happens to occur right there...

But surely the things will only be immediately useful if there happens to be an ambulance right there when the bomb goes off.

If the detectors were in street cameras or lampposts they would detect radiation straight away wherever the bomb went off and the emergency services would be able to pinpoint exactly where it was. Then they could be set to sound an evacuation alarm straight away.